It’s Fleischman with the lead his table and in the tourney, but that doesn’t mean the other players aren’t active or even more active.

Ed Betlow just got it in during Stud H/L and holding with a pair of fours against an unlucky short stack. Needed chips for Betlow and a seat opens.

Betlow, seat 3, takes out seat 2. Pauletti, right, looks on.

Then, Donald Mulhoney attacked two unfortuante bring-ins from short stack Rene Oliveras. Each time Mulhoney completed, Oliveras made the call. On identical door and fourth street cards for Donald, he fired and took down the pot when Oliveras was dealt bananas.

Mulhoney splashes out a 4th street bet on a fairly blank card into Oliveras – Fleischman looks on from the 9.

Mulhoney is now healthy at 53,000.

Then we finally got to see the chip leader in action, playing a small role in a multiway pot in Omaha H/L, ultimately centering on turn and river bets by Matt Pauletti.

Fleischman limped in, as did seat 1 and the button Pauletti.

Rene Oliveras checked his option after Mulhoney folded the SB. On , the field somehow all checked – the hands and draws must have been quite weak.

On the turned , it again checked all the way around to Pauletti, who announced a bet. Oliveras and Fleischman surrendered, but seat 1 Renato Correa found a check-call.

The rivered paired with the , and Renato again check called Pauletti, who showed a turned flush draw and air. A strong but necessary call with a good top pair by Correa, and a key pot for him.

Oliveras is down to a big bet, Correa has 25,000, and Pauletti 20,000.

First Nate Parenti surrendered his big blind in Omaha H/L to Behrooz Shahrzad.

Nate Parenti and Behrooz Shahrzad bicker unseriously.

“You’re scared,” Behrooz told the chip leader.

“Not scared,” Nate replied.

While they bantered about folding marginal hands, Toothpick raised and got almost all of his stack in, leaving not even a big bet behind.

He got action three way and on turn of , his remaining 500 went in. He got a crying call and showed down .

His opponent claimed little, which was true, and when the five paired, Toothpick had quadrupled with a scoop, thanks to the ace eight low and trips.

Joseph H., The Toothpick, chips up this level.

Meanwhile, the table got a round of drinks. That’s how to do it.

Then Matt Pauletti, after losing a pot to the big blind in a spot with no action after the flop, got into a raising war with Bahrooz. There was some lack of clarity on the betting rules (bet and three raises) but it was more or less clear the money was going in later, as Toothpick had about two big bets left.

Pauletti and the Toothpick, who shows only a jack when Matt folds.

Declaring himself the winner, Toothpick put his last chips – one big bet exactly – and Pauletti couldn’t call on a broadway turn not friendly to wheels – .

Even in a true freeze-out, it’s hard to broke too fast in a limit tournament, but it’s also hard to accumulate a crushing stack. We’ll be looking for the early leaders when players return from the break – for now, no large separation sighted.

Alan Goldsmith, red jacket, finished 4th in this year’s Winter Poker Open mixed event. Nate Parenti sits on his left.Stewart Williams is dealt all the aces in Stud – too bad it’s Hi-lo! He wins the pot and is a little over starting stack.Tournament legend Chris Reslock gets bets in on all streets, showing down the wheel in stud. So that’s how he does it.